1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to actuators and particularly, to a piezoelectric actuator and camera module having the piezoelectric actuator, with a portable electronic device having such camera module.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of optical imaging technology, camera modules are widely used in a variety of portable electronic devices, such as mobile phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Some portable electronic devices, for example, third generation (3G) mobile phones, include camera modules. The camera modules use actuators to provide zoom and auto-focus, for example, stepper motors. It is frequently necessary to use a gear assembly to transform the rotational movement of the actuators into linear movement. However, such a gear assembly generally increases bulk of the camera modules. Furthermore, the occurrence of backlash/recoil in the gear assembly may degrade focus accuracy.
Therefore, what is needed is an actuator and camera module using the new actuator that can overcome the described limitations.